Is Apple Banning iPhone App Analytics?

Developers are coming to terms with another change in the license agreement for iPhone OS 4 that will ban third-party analytics apps from tracking and reporting tracking how users interact with applications on their Apple device.

Fresh changes to Apple's iPhone Developer Program License Agreement had previously restricted the use of cross-compiling tools such as Adobe Flash Professional CS5. Adobe's software utilised a Flash-to-iPhone compiler that could re-package Flash projects into iPhone applications.

The passage in the agreement reads as follows:

Device Data may not be provided or disclosed to a third party without Apple's prior written consent. Accordingly, the use of third party software in Your Application to collect and send Device Data to a third party for processing or analysis is expressly prohibited.

As a result of this change, analytics companies such as Distimo and Flurry will be seeking clarification from Apple to see whether the the service they provide does fall foul of the new terms within the developer agreement.

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